Charles Clarke - crazy man

Apparently, Charles Clarke is a misunderstood man. He entered politics to make life better for more people. It could fool you, this rhetoric. Yesterday, Clarke, as ever and on his apparently downward spiral, seemed to lose it when he wrote an article in The Guardian accusing all and sundry - and particularly in the media - of being sensationalist, melodramatic and essentially full of garbage.

What prompted this bizarre outburst? It's because Clarke (and Tony Blair too) are increasingly frustrated, angry and saddened by people criticising them for being authoritarian, totalitarian, destroyers of civil liberties, virtual dictators who are breaching and destroying the rule of law. Whatever gave anyone that idea?! The government has introduced a huge variety of legislation which allows people to be held without charge or trial for long periods; it will make biometric ID cards compulsory by 2010 if it wins the next election; it breached international law to commit and conduct an illegal war of invasion and occupation in Iraq, based on what we now know to be false disclosures; it tried to introduce the legislative and regulatory reform bill recently which would allow a minister to amend, pass or repeal any legislation without having to refer it to Parliament; and it has passed legislation that makes it illegal to express an opinion if it "glorifies" terrorism. It was only several weeks ago also that Clarke was complaining bitterly that the media did not always present the news the way it should be (i.e. the way the government spin would have it presented) - heavens knows what next? Perhaps he will try to introduce a bill that obliges broadcasters and papers to have all their content approved by the Home Office!

Sadly, whilst I do believe that Clarke, Blair and the others honestly think they are doing what is best for the country and whilst I do not believe that they will seize power indefinitely, they have to face up to facts and realsie that they are fundamentally damaging (perhaps irreperably) basic civil liberties and human rights. They may think now that these will be used only to hurt those that deserve it, such as terrorists and criminals, but what will future governments do? Also, they need to examine how their new anti-libertarian new laws are being used now - as evidence, you only need look at the mother of dead soldier (killed in Iraq) who was arrested under the draconian anti-terrorism laws for daring to read out a list of the Iraq dead outside Downing Street or the Labopur Party activist who was also arrested under the terrorism acts when he dared to shout "rubbish" at a Cabinet minister during a Labour conference speech last year.

The government may think it knows best, but already its anti-rights laws are being abused by over-zealous police, so what for the future?

Demosthenes

Sign a petition to protest against Thames Water

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/thames-water-protest

Please follow the link to a petition concerning Thames Water. Please sign if you are a Thames Water customer and are dissatisfied with their 'service.'

It is amazing what you can find out about a company from public records.

Here is the text of the petition:

SIGN BELOW IF WANT TO REGISTER YOUR DISGUST AT THAMES WATER FOR RISING PRICES, POOR SERVICE, LACK OF INVESTMENT AND PANDERING TO ITS SHAREHOLDERS!

SIGN BELOW IF YOU WANT THAMES WATER TO SPEND MORE MONEY ON FIXING LEAKS WITHOUT INCREASING OUR BILLS!

THIS PETITION WILL BE SENT TO THAMES WATER, THE GOVERNMENT AND OFWAT, THE WATER REGULATOR.

Hosepipe Ban

On Monday, 3 April 2006, Thames Water introduced a hose-pipe ban on its 5 million household customers. The ban will affect an estimated 8 million people. Thames Water has stated that the ban is necessary to preserve scarce water resources through what is expected to be a dry summer. If the region does not enjoy more rainfall, Thames Water may introduce further emergency measures, which may eventually culminate in all domestic water supplies being cut off, forcing people to obtain their water from standpipes in the street.

Millions of litres leaked every day

However, it is estimated that a staggering 914 million litres is leaked every single day from water mains under the control of Thames Water. That is enough water to fill 11.4 million baths every single day or, in other words, 1½ baths for every Thames Water customer. If these leaks were fixed – if even half were fixed! – would we need a hosepipe ban? Would we live under the threat of supplies being cut off?

Thames Water has blamed the leaks on an ageing network of water mains and claims that it is pending £500,000 per day to fix the leaks. THIS IS CLEARLY NOT ENOUGH!

Hundreds of millions in dividends for shareholders

Thames Water may not direct enough money to fix leaks, but it has found a staggering £141.2 million to pay in dividends to its corporate shareholders for the financial year ended 31 March 2005. In 2003/4, it was £136.1m. In fact, here’s a list of Thames Water’s dividends obtained from its own Annual Reports from 1997:

1997 £136.6 million
1998 £643.4 million
1999 £891 million
2000 £117.2 million
2001 £122.5 million
2002 £126.6 million
2003 £136.1 million
2004 £141.2 million

Price rises

The average water bill for Thames Water for the same period from 1997 to 2005 has risen from £201 to £246, a huge 19%. In 2005, Thames Water announced that in the next 5 years, average prices would rise by a further 24%. If it were not enough that their prices rose in real terms by an enormous 44% from 1989 (when privatisation happened) to 1999, they now plan on hitting the customers for a further staggering price rise. BUT WHERE ARE THE IMPROVEMENTS? WHY ARE WE FACING A HOSEPIPE BAN?

Millions in retained profits

The customers must pay more even though Thames Water loses a third of all of its water in leaks every day and even though Thames Water announced in its most recent Annual Report that it currently has £57.3 million in retained profits. WHY ISN’T THIS MONEY SPENT ON FIXING LEAKS? WE ASK AGAIN - WHY ARE WE FACING A HOSEPIPE BAN?

What you can do

· Please sign this petition
· Write to your local MP
· Write to OFWAT
· Complain to Thames Water

Thank you for your time.

Demosthenes

Water Companies - greedy, inefficient or both?

Hampstead Heath by June (pictured left)
Hosepipe bans came into force yesterday for 10 regions across southern England. If you are caught breaching the ban by watering your garden or cleaning your car with a hose, you are liable for a £1,000 fine. Of course, if you are Thames Water, for argument's sake, you can allow 914 million litres of water per day (which equates to approximately 159 litres per household per day in the Thames Water catchment area) to be lost due to leaks in faulty pipes with complete and utter impunity! Marvellous. I knew privatisation was good for something.

Thames Water protest, naturally. This bastion of community care and good practice boasts that it is spending £500,000 per day in fixing the pipes that cause the leaks. Here's a newsflash - it clearly is not enough. Instead of pandering to the shareholders and it directors' grotesque pay increases, why doesn't Thames Water undertake to reduce the amount of leakage by a certain percentage (say 25%) within a certain period (say 3 years)? I guess, however, that dividends and pay increases come before providing a decent service of a basic human need to millions of ever-increasingly exasperated customers.

Take a look at Thames Water's last audited annual accounts, prepared as at 31 December 2004. It is with great interest that I note that the aggregate salaries for the 4 executive directors rose by a staggering 64% from £873,000 for 2003 to £1,359,000 for 2004. It also note that Thames Water had such a bumper year in 2004 that it could afford to pay £141.2 million in dividends to its shareholders and still retain a further £48.2 million as retained profit. Amazing. Amongst Thames Water's operational costs will be found the £182 million (or so) per year that is required to fix leaks, so why don't the board resolve to apply more of that retained profit towards further leakage management.

By the end of the summer, I might be having to get my drinking water from a standpipe in the road, but Thames Water will still be sitting pretty and taking insufficient action to resolve its all too apparent inefficiencies.

And, as a final point, when O when are we going to introdcue compulsory metering for water in the UK? We overuse as a nation as it is, but with a fair system of pay-as-you-use metering, consumption would plummet as, simultaneously, water reserves would replenish. See my old article ("Water, Water..." you will need to scroll down the link) for a fuller piece: http://politics-eh.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_politics-eh_archive.html

© Demosthenes

Will Charles Clarke Never Give Up?

Charles Clarke (pictured above)

Big Brother (pictured right) relaxes by the pool

Mr Clarke finally has to back down on his manifesto-breaking proposal to make ID cards all but compulsory prior to the end of this Parliament and, no sooner has he skulked away with a bloodied nose, he is back, bolder than ever proposing that even if people opt out of having an ID card when they next renew their passport, they will still be expected the pay the full amount which would be payable to obtain a new passport and a new ID card!

Yet again, Mr Clarke wants to make ID cards compulsory by the back door, for who is going to pay the additional £50 or £60 and not get an ID card, when they may well be compulsory by 2010? And if sensible citizens do refuse to succumb to being the state's biometricly branded indentured slave, they will have to pay what is in effect a poll tax on their refusal to erode their own civil rights.

As a Machiavellian ploy, it's a stroke of genius, but it should yet again leave right minded people deeply concerned about the state of our rights in modern Britain.

Demosthenes

Israeli Elections

There has been much discussion this week about the Israeli elections and the general consensus amongst the West and those who favour a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestine issue is that the result provides hope. Finally, the right-wing Likud party, led by the reactionary Benjamin Netanyahu, has been knocked from its domineering pedestal. Likud has led the debate for the last 25 years and peace has been no nearer due to their desire for a Greater Israel - in other words, annexing part, if not all, of the illegal occupied territories - but this week saw their Knesset seats shrink from over 40 to just 12.

The largest party is the more centrist Kadima party, established by Ariel Sharon and now led by Ehud Olmert, with 29 seats. Although it is welcome that Kadima favours removing most Israeli settlors from the occupied territories and then bulldozing the illegal settlements, the principal drawback to the policy is that it is unilateral and will involve no negotiation with the Palestinian ruling authorities and certainly not with the new Hamas-led government. Giving up some land for peace is preferable to giving up no land, but surely a unilateral 'resolution' will only lead to further problems in the future. For example, it is acknowledged that some settlements on the border of Israel and the occupied territories are now so large, so entrenched that even some Palestinians would permit them to remain as they are, provided, of course, that the Palestinians receive something in return. A negotiated settlement may produce such a mutually acceptable position, but a unilateral decision almost certainly will not. In particular, it is noted that Kadima and Olmert may well be planning in maintaining some settlements which lie deep in occupied lands and in strategic positions which make any truly independent Palestinian state non-viable. A unilateral action on such settlements is no use to anyone in the long term.

Kadima and Olmert must realise that now is the best chance for a negotiated peace. Kadima's principal colleague in government will be the Labour Party of Peretz, which took 20 seats, and which favours a negotiated settlement. Perhaps Olmert will think that he can bribe Labour with promises of social regeneration and social justice packages as Israel's economy sinks further into the mire, causing a further widening of the already large gap between rich and poor, but it would be a mistake to pass up the opportunity to at least attempt the solve the most pressing problem. In Peretz, he will surely have a valuable ally in any negotiations. Also, Hamas have shown their resolve for a pathway to initial discussions by maintaining a ceasefire for over a year, which has recently been extended by another year. Although Hamas will need to amend its constitution to reflect Israel's right to exist, I believe that they want to do business and these appear tyo be the indications from the region itself. It would be another grave mistake, a stupid mistake if the new Israeli government overlooked the largest, most powerful political party in Palestine when formulating any plan for ceding land for peace.

The election results are not perfect - they have not stopped the construction of the so-called "apartheid" wall, they have not stopped Israeli forces from closing checkpoints into parts of Gaza so that this week, Gaza ran out of flour, they have not stopped the endemic racism, but there is a better hope for peace in the region than there has been for at least 10 years.

© Demosthenes